Commentary

Coming Soon to a Desktop Near You: TV Commercials

  • by January 21, 2004
Cory Treffiletti recently made a compelling case that video is about to emerge as a major factor in online advertising. As evidence he cites increasing Broadband penetration; the efficiency (and added impact) of ad agencies integrating their campaigns using video already shot for TV; and a number of technologies that allow you to place video within a standard size ad unit. He concludes with an industry call to action citing a "need to understand the best way to integrate video into the (online) experience." Mr. Treffiletti knows his audience, and they are pretty savvy about the Internet, but it is also worth pointing out the following:
  • That people prefer visually delivered content vs. text based. This is borne out by the fact that TV, in spite of network ratings drops this past year, routinely outperforms other media in delivering a mass news audience. TV news long ago displaced newspapers as America's primary source of news. As broadband use grows, the "visual consumption of news" is beginning to translate to the web as well. According to The Pew Research Center, "about 60% of Internet users with high-speed home connections watch a TV news program on a typical day, while 43% of broadband users get news online on a typical day." And from what we have seen with WorldNow's Network of 143 Television station sites, they are watching streaming video news.
  • Unlike other media, the Internet is heavily used in the workplace. WorldNow stats show that there is a rapidly growing audience that is watching breaking news stories in streaming video format during the day. Ads dropped into the viewing process provide advertisers with an entirely new "@ work daypart." The opportunities for time-targeted advertisers such as convenience foods are exceptional.
  • Interactivity (request forms/lead generation/more info) is possible with online video that benefits advertisers one step beyond the traditional branding power of the TV commercial. It provides the interactive power of a direct marketing medium as well.
  • Viewers on our network of local TV sites are creating their own "newscasts" by picking and choosing the video segments they want. This has two important implications: It avoids the "watch the whole newscast stream on the computer" syndrome where viewers are locked into watching something they don't really want to see in its entirety. Secondly, by matching the topic of each news segments (women's news, sports, family news, etc.) we can match advertiser messages to user preferences and presumptive demographics.
  • According to a recent Magid Media study, women are heavy users of TV news sites. Online video can not only reach working moms (where other media can't) it can reach women at home who are online with a purpose (looking up local weather reports, school closings, traffic conditions) and who are time shifting their daytime TV with TiVo and other DVRs. There was a time when online video was saddled with having to download media players, long wait times while streams downloaded and pretty poor picture quality. But thanks to the march of technology (such as the ability to now embed video units in standard ad units) online video has come of age. We see users increasingly attracted to video news content (often at the expense of other media) and, like Mr. Treffiletti, are certain advertisers will go where their audiences are - online.

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    Like the old saying goes, "the dollars follow the eyeballs" - and the eyeballs are watching streaming video!

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